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Released every Tuesday, the LOUNGE LIZARDS podcast helps listeners navigate the experience of finding and enjoying premium cigars (both Cuban and non-Cuban) and quality spirits. Episodes range from 60 to 90 minutes and feature a variety of different topics including food, travel, life, sports and work.
The podcast features seven members: Rooster, Poobah, Gizmo, Senator, Pagoda, Grinder and Bam Bam.
This is not your typical cigar podcast. We’re a group of friends who love sharing cigars, whiskey and a good laugh.
Join us and become a card-carrying lounge lizard yourself! Email us at hello@loungelizardspod.com to join the conversation and be featured on an upcoming episode!
**Gizmo:** [00:00:00] Welcome to the Lounge Lizards podcast. It's so good to have you here. It's a leisure and lifestyle podcast founded on our love of premium cigars, as well as whiskey, travel, food, work, and whatever else we feel like getting into. My name is Gizmo. Tonight I'm joined by Rooster Senator Grinder, and bam bam.
And our plan is to smoke a cigar. Drink some bourbon, talk about life, and of course have some laughs. So take this as your 73rd official invitation to join us and become a card carrying lounge, lizard planet. Meet here once a week. We are gonna smoke a new world cigar tonight. Share our thoughts on it and give you our formal lizard rating.
We discuss Jose Garcia's wide range of influence. We share our thoughts on the best cigar storage conditions and cigar freezing protocols. And we discuss the Cuban World Baseball Classic Defector, all among a variety of other things for the next 90 minutes. So sit back, get your favorite drink, light up a cigar, and enjoy as we pair Basil Hayden's Kentucky Bourbon with the Don Papin Garcia Blue in land.
Ser a beautiful landeros from Don [00:01:00] Papin Garcia tonight. It's the blue label. It's a seven and a half inch cigar, 38 ring gauge. Of course, continuing in our series of doing long skinnys on the pod, uh, which I think is coming to a close soon cuz we're running out. It's a shame. It's a shame. Uh, and we've actually had some listeners like, Hey, we need to do some big sticks.
Ah, we need to do some big sticks. So we'll get, we're gonna get into the, uh, higher ring gauge stuff soon, but tonight we have a three banded beautiful cigar, uh, from Ecuador, Nicaragua, right? Is the origin of this. Yeah. Ecuadorian rapper.
**Rooster:** Ecuadorian rapper and Nicaragua Binder and Filler. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Looks really good.
Smells really nice. It's beautiful. Yeah. We used to have foot band, so it has one of our, our, the famous, any scotch tape foot ban, there is scotch tape, but it slides right off so it comes off rather easily. Yeah. There's no torture in the, uh, in the foot bend. As long as it comes
**Rooster:** off easily, I'm okay with it because it kind of
**Gizmo:** protects the foot.
Agreed. Right.
**Senator:** Yep. So this is the first foot band, though? That's actually come off
**Gizmo:** easily. Yeah, that's, I don't [00:02:00] mind at all. Don Ppen Garcia needs to talk to the EP Carillo people. Mm-hmm. , yes. and advise them on how to apply , a scotch tape, foot band without destroying the wrapper. They,
**Grinder:** I've too many of those cigars I've had to mangle because the Scotch tape ,
**Gizmo:** it's just unfortunate, unnecessary.
All right, boys, let's cut this thing. See, we're getting on the cold draw of the wrapper
**Rooster:** also. I don't think you need it because it comes in a cellophane if it didn't come in a cellophane.
**Gizmo:** It does seem redundant, right? Yeah. And especially with a cigar that has a wrapper that look like it. It's a really nice looking cigar.
It's a beautiful cigar. Like I, I don't see why it's necessary, but draw is wide open. Yeah. So I've only had one of these. Senator gave me one. I know. Uh, rooster's really been enjoying these. Senator two, have you guys been having them? Grinder? Bam.
**Grinder:** I've had one. I've had one
**Bam Bam:** recently. Delicious compliments.
The Senator. This
**Gizmo:** is the cold draw is really unique. This
**Bam Bam:** is on a top, I think 10 of the new worlds for sure.
**Gizmo:** For me, I'm getting like a, a, an odd kind of [00:03:00] cocoa, which is really nice.
**Bam Bam:** I know. It's gonna be great. Yeah, kinda like a faint white chocolate type of thing. I'm
**Gizmo:** getting, I almost get like a minty thing too.
Hmm. Not, not me. Almost like a little mint chocolate chip. A York peppermint patty. That's what I was just about to say. Mm. Little York
**Bam Bam:** peppermint patty. That could be the cedar. Could be. Could be. I think that could be the cedar. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Very nice cigar. Your pals are so refined. Oh yeah. That's interesting. It might be the York peppermint patty I just had before the recording, but that
**Bam Bam:** don't help
**Gizmo:** All right, boys, let's light this thing. The Don Papin Garcia Blue Label, and Sarah again, it's 38 ring gauge by seven and a half inches.
**Bam Bam:** You know, as we light this, you can't light this with a true torch. It's gotta be
**Gizmo:** a gentle flame. Yeah, you gotta take it easy. I really just back off my soft flame. It's gotta be very soft.
Yeah, man, we really riled up the listeners with our soft flame versus, uh, butane jet discussion. Well, that's very, very, uh,
**Bam Bam:** you gotta apply force polar [00:04:00] topic. You apply force when it's needed, not, no pun intended. What would be funny about that? I'm not sure why. That's funny. . Why is that funny? Is it you? Bam.
I
**Gizmo:** love you. Really nice on the light. It's delicious. That's
**Bam Bam:** delicious. I'm getting some pretty deep cocoa, some cedar. It's really quite nice.
**Grinder:** Still. I am getting a little
**Gizmo:** pepper. Yeah, little pepper. Little, just a little bit of spice. Oh baby.
**Senator:** I also just, the construction, I mean, we were talking about all the bands and the foot band and all that, but the construction on this thing for the price. It's
**Gizmo:** flawless. Flawless. What is this? Eight bucks? Yeah, I was about to ask,
**Rooster:** how much is this? Nine. Nine. Wow. It's incredible. It's a $9
**Bam Bam:** fundi. You said that about the My father and you
**Gizmo:** weren't this, this one too.
You weren't wrong. . And they're from the same, they're from the same family. Right. I think me and
**Rooster:** Senator had this when I first got it. I had one that I gave him one. Yeah. And I remember him saying [00:05:00] this reminds him more. More of a fun
**Senator:** to, more of a funding is more
**Rooster:** fun like than my like Cuban flavor out of this cigar than the My father, number
**Gizmo:** four, Lance Arrow that
**Bam Bam:** we had.
Sure. The lance, the my father is, for me, there's more earth tone, which you don't get in a lot of Cubans, but in this one I'm getting a lot of dried fruit. Cocoa, which you get in. Yeah. Some of the more premiums
**Senator:** pubs, sweet
**Gizmo:** notes. I agree with that. Right.
**Rooster:** And I think this is a little bit on the fuller side compared to.
My father as well. A hundred percent. But smooth
**Gizmo:** delivery. Smooth. Yeah. On the light, I would say it's medium. Firmly. Medium,
**Senator:** yeah. Yeah. I actually think that this is a little bit lighter for some reason than the, my father. I don't think this has more body than that does.
**Gizmo:** I actually forgot how good the cigar is.
It's really nice on the light, dude. The, the, the smoke is, uh, it's a thick, really nice smoke. Great combustion of, and you know, we love that, especially out of a thinner ring gauge cigar like this. To have the combustion that, that, that this is putting out is, is really, really nice. I
**Grinder:** have some weird, like, leather in the,
**Bam Bam:** in the retro hell for [00:06:00] me.
Yeah. I haven't tried the retro yet.
**Grinder:** Weird. In a good way.
**Gizmo:** In a good And a little spice. Yeah. Spice and leather. Yeah. This is really, I can't believe that this is $9. Like, that's crazy to me. It's crazy when a funded, funded Doris now is selling, I think for 85 A stick . I mean, the Cohiba Landeros. Same. I mean, and look at the experience we had with the Fundi a few weeks ago.
Yeah. It was. You know, kind of hit
**Bam Bam:** or miss. Y'all broke my heart with that one, but, um, I
**Gizmo:** get it. I just think it was a kind of a dut of a box, bro. Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** From the point of view of the viola, there is nothing more elegant
**Gizmo:** than a Lance Arrow. I just love holding it in my hand just like a pencil. It
**Bam Bam:** elevates the experience.
And rooster, you look much sexier with a lance arrow in your hand than you do a robust. Thank you, sir. You got it. .
**Gizmo:** You do look good. Doesn't look good. He looks very civilized. Look, look
**Rooster:** at it does look better on my, with my left hand or my right
**Gizmo:** hand?
**Grinder:** No, just your left hand. The way you left. Better with the four finger, like you have a three, four finger.
**Rooster:** I gotta move this table to my [00:07:00] right
**Gizmo:** then. .
**Bam Bam:** You see how senators holding has got three fingers on what I'm, I'm trying to, I like that. I like that. See, this is what I do. I do this too often. Oh, like you're painting a canvas. Like,
**Gizmo:** uh, yeah.
**Senator:** This is like, I do that with a larger ring gauge, but for some reason with a smaller one, I kind of go like this, hold it and just admire it.
I don't know. Right. How about it's different? How
**Bam Bam:** about the, you know, I got a lot of jokes on that one. .
**Grinder:** There's, uh, there's, everyone has their own fingerprint. Everyone has their own unique way of holding cigars. It's true. You know, how, how do you, how, I'm curious to the listeners, how they, yeah. What are their signature
**Gizmo:** marks?
You know, one finger here and, oh, do you do the thumb and pinky under. . Yeah. Yeah. From and Pinky under. I don't know if I like that. Yeah, I don't like it at all. Yeah, it looks a little uncomfortable. Yeah. , he just gave us another finger. , an additional finger. Came into play. A sixth finger. Yeah. This is really, really nice.
On the light, ma'am. Oh, this like a pencil.
**Bam Bam:** The distinguished gentleman. You are.
**Grinder:** [00:08:00] I'm pretty much always like this
**Gizmo:** actually. All like, like holding it like a, like a
**Grinder:** brush. Like, like a, like a,
**Bam Bam:** like a mo and a mo block
**Gizmo:** in your hand? Yeah. Not a pill cue. Actually. That's like a pencil kind of. I've been smoking a lot of landeros.
I mean, even outside of the pod, we've obviously done a pretty long block of, uh, landeros and, uh, and, and lawnsdale, but I've just been really reaching for the lancer. Just give, it's a perfect amount of time. When I sit down, I usually have that like hour and a half, hour 45. It's like perfect. Yep. You know, especially at home reading the Kindle or whatever.
That's awesome. Yeah. It's the way to go. . It's really, really nice. So, uh, Don Ping Garcia. Jose Garcia is his real name. He is the blender for, uh, my father Cigars. And this came out of the My Father Cigar Factory. Uh, and you said it was manufactured in Miami Rooster Miami,
**Rooster:** yeah. It's a small factory called, uh, El Ray Habanas.
Okay. In Miami there's only about a dozen rollers. Wow. [00:09:00] Yeah, I mean, I assume they do have a factory in Nicaragua that they roll, you know, the rest of the cigars. But this
**Gizmo:** particular one is rolled. Interesting. So he also has done, uh, ta Flo de on. Yeah. Yep. And then one, I wasn't, I guess it's the dpg, the Don Papen Garcia Cuban Classic is another line of his, not familiar with it, but, um, obviously a very, very popular.
Blender and manufacturer of cigars in the industry. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Uh, and no surprise, I mean that my father, number four we had was amazing off the charts. This is really starting off great. Sure. Yeah. Warped. Warped. Yeah. That was good. Uh, that was excellent. The warped was amazing. That was a lawnsdale though.
Yeah. Yeah. Yes. The Maro del Tie, but that's not his. That's, uh, right. Younger guy with a big beard. Uh, his name is escaping me. I think his name's Nick. Okay.
**Bam Bam:** The smoke, the flavor of that smoke. Mm-hmm. They're
**Gizmo:** almost delicious. It's outstanding.
**Senator:** Yeah. Well, that's the other thing I like [00:10:00] about this cigar. The smoke output is really nice. Mm-hmm. , I think all of us like Len Arrows, but one of the things that makes me hesitate sometimes to pull Lenaro is just the risk that the draw's gonna be tight.
Yeah. And I'm not gonna get a lot of smoke output. It's true. So, um, I'm always thinking about that. But I love with this cigar, I mean, the draw is wide open, lots of smoke. It, it kind of can fit at any moment or time. Mm-hmm. .
**Gizmo:** You know, I really wish that Padron made Alan in the 64 line. Well,
**Bam Bam:** the, um, that would be great.
That menarchy that they have is cut out. Yeah, I think that's a lawnsdale. It is. But from the point of view, the ring gauge and length, yeah. It
**Gizmo:** gives you a similar experience. I just wish it was like, even if it was a box press and a box press 38. That'd be amazing. I'd love to see that. Yeah. I'm,
**Rooster:** I'm start, I'm starting to see a lot of Lances coming up though.
Really? Like ov, you know, the millennium is coming up. Yeah. We can't wait. They just did the
**Gizmo:** signature number one. We can't wait for that millennial. So. Yeah. So Millennium Serro is a new one coming out, right? That's coming out, yeah. In a couple of weeks. That will be a tremendous hit. Midap. April. April, April 6th.
**Grinder:** April should be a [00:11:00] tremendous hit. Can you like pre-order them?
**Senator:** Yeah, we should do that. Not everywhere, but some places. Mm. We should do that. I found one site. I'll send a link.
**Gizmo:** Yes, yes. Yeah. We should get them for the pod because we love the the millennium Pyramid. Pyramid. Oh yeah. Um. , but yeah, I can't wait to try that.
Yeah. I wasn't a big fan of the signature number one. I guess we'll do that at some point on the pod, but you guys love that cigar. We do. It's
**Bam Bam:** excellent. Yeah. It's an excellent morning midday cigar. Without a
**Gizmo:** doubt. Yeah. Yeah. It's got a lot of cedar.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. And I get, you're gonna laugh, but I do get citrus.
Citrus.
**Gizmo:** I do citrus. I, and it's very creamy for the listener playing bam, bam. Bingo. You can mark your citrus. I get citrus, I
**Bam Bam:** get citruses. . Totally. Yeah. Right.
**Gizmo:** There's probably no cigar that you don't get citrus at .
**Bam Bam:** That is absolutely not true. . That is categorically incorrect .
**Gizmo:** I just, I just can't believe they manufacture in, sell these cigars for nine bucks.
I can't get over it. Yeah. I mean, the value, even if this performs, don't say that too [00:12:00] loud. We don't want the price to go up. Yeah. Well the rest of the industry's certainly trending that way.
**Grinder:** There's, there's a lot of. . There's a lot of new world cigars like this though, that are sleepers
**Gizmo:** that we, yeah, and we've found so many of them we need to engage
**Grinder:** with.
We do, because you know, there's a lot of great manufacturers out there. There's a lot of great. . People who know their tobacco, who are rowing tobacco know how to roll it the right, right way. Yeah. And are in it for the right reason, not just
**Gizmo:** like a marketing scheme. Yeah. Send us recommendations. Sod, we'd love to try something.
We've actually got some listener recommendations coming up. The one that that f fantastic that's, that's in the queue is the, you know, we love the Ellucian Grazado re buso. Yeah. So we have, uh, what they call the Holy Lance, which is a Maduro Lance Sarah from Ellucian. We have that coming up in a, in a few weeks.
I'm really excited for that. You know what, I'm excited
**Grinder:** for the, uh, drew Estate year of the rabbit. Did you see that? No. Is it the year of the rabbit?
**Senator:** Mm-hmm. Yeah. That's, it is the year of the,
**Grinder:** um, this year they have him only available in Hong Kong right now. Um, [00:13:00] I don't know why or how, but only available there
**Senator:** and even no true estate distributed
**Gizmo:** to Hong Kong.
Wow. Yeah. They're big in Asia. Yeah.
**Grinder:** And, and, um, my, um, my mentor and friend, he, he got a box of them because of his, uh, connection at True Estate. Awesome. And he said they were fantastic. very T 52.
**Gizmo:** And what, what, what was the size on those? Um, it wasn't Serro, was it? No, no, no, no. It
**Grinder:** wasn't zero. Okay. I was just speaking generally about New worlds
**Senator:** to Rooster's point earlier, though, about a lot of Landeros coming out.
I mean, it's kind of funny when you think about it. It it, it's like Cuban cigars are trending with larger ring gauges coming out. Like all these new limited releases they're putting out and New World cigars, it's like they're going in the opposite direction. All these land arrows.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Which I like. Well, as Grindr says, Hobans is just five years behind of everything.
**Bam Bam:** I mean, well, they can't spell . I mean,
**Gizmo:** that's, that's a problem. They can't spell connoisseur. That's, no, that's a damn shame. .
**Bam Bam:** Not sure about [00:14:00] the paring tonight though. Should we talk about
**Gizmo:** that? Yeah, let's talk about it. That's the elephant in the room. .
**Grinder:** Everyone's,
**Gizmo:** everyone's shitting on this fucking bourn.
**Bam Bam:** Wow.
It's, honestly, it has gotten
**Gizmo:** better. Let's see. So we have Basil Hayden, a very, let's just say it's a very popular Oh yeah. Bourbon. It's Oh yeah. Extremely. It's a very popular Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey from Basil Hayden tonight. Yep.
**Bam Bam:** Getting a lot of floral on this very strong
**Gizmo:** floral notes. Yeah.
It's just, um, it's, to me it's so, it's just weak. Yeah. It's very light. It's very light and weak. Um, I was gonna
**Grinder:** say that I thought maybe I watered mine down
**Senator:** too much. Mm-hmm. . Yeah. No, cuz I intentionally, I took a sip right when it was poured before the ice could take over. Yeah. And, um, immediately just very thin,
**Grinder:** very light, no legs at all.
I, I'll be honest, I'm, I'm like not digging the, the harshness of bourbon recently. I kind of like it. Ooh. I'm a little, I'm, I, I didn't, I didn't shit on it because I shit on it because of memory.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Interesting. It's not so bad. I used to drink [00:15:00] quite a bit of Basil Hayden. Yeah. I mean, it's, is that right?
You? Yeah. Wow. Yeah. About 10 years ago. Okay.
**Grinder:** I think if you're, if you're, if you don't like a, a sharp, you know, if you're a verse to the harshness of, of a bourbon, um, this might be a good, this might be a good run for
**Senator:** you. Yeah. I think to grinder's point, like it's a, it's probably a good starter bourbon.
Like, it, it doesn't drink bold or aggressive. And even having this, now I'm just thinking about like, if I had to drink this, when would I drink it? Like, this would work in the summer. It's so light and floral, like Bam was saying. I mean, yeah, it, it, it really kind of slots in, in certain places. Hmm.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Bams not sold though.
buing it over. He's stewing
**Bam Bam:** almost. No, I'm not. But it's the ri nature of it that kind of makes my, um, stomach turn a little bit. Mm-hmm.
**Gizmo:** It's very ri Do you think it would pair
**Rooster:** with a difference?
**Gizmo:** Cigar better?
**Senator:** I don't know. Probably one with some citrus in
**Bam Bam:** it, right? Yeah. . I need a citrusy cigar. Number one.
Citrus. There you go. Citrus . [00:16:00]
**Gizmo:** So this is owned by the Jim Beam Company? Beam Santori. It's brewed at, uh, yeah. It's, I mean, they make a ton of this stuff and, uh, yeah, it's very, very popular. It was only 33 bucks. Yep. Wow. So, you know, for a light, hence it's popularity and why. Yeah. And people love it, you know?
Yeah. I see a lot of people drinking this, especially parties and stuff, you know, people love it at like a, like a happy hour after, you know, before dinner type thing. Mm-hmm. , you know, the bottle actually looks pretty nice. It is actually, I think they just redesigned it recently. I think they, in the last couple years, I think they did a full redesign.
But I liked the Copper, the copper band band on it with the, the silver BH logo. I assure you. That's kind so classy. I, well, I, I assumed band, but trying to paint a picture for the listeners. I gotcha. Oh, let's throw it with my landro paintbrush. .
**Senator:** Let, let's throw it on the floor and make sure it doesn't break.
That,
**Gizmo:** that tiger? Yeah, the dragon on the, uh, that, that was garbage. That was garbage. But this is pretty good. I, you know, it's, it's thin. Is it bringing memories back for you? Yeah. Not good [00:17:00] ones. . Oh,
**Bam Bam:** doucher. . You can imagine we like the good and the bad here. .
**Senator:** We'll have his sync on the podcast. Next .
**Grinder:** We'll get all the story.
A lot of Hazel Hayden, he was doing a lot of payroll that week. ,
**Bam Bam:** you're Don't laugh. I, this'll get you to the sync really quick,
**Gizmo:** by the way, for the listener who's, uh, uninitiated on the Roast of Gizmo. I don't remember what episode it was, uh, quite a while ago. And 22, uh, well, we
**Senator:** know what episode it was. It was the episode that we reviewed.
Shiva 18. Shivi
**Gizmo:** 18. Just look for that in the episode notes to look for it. Thank you. Uh, Senator Smokes . You were quick.
**Grinder:** That was quick draw there. He'll never forget
**Bam Bam:** that. Oh yeah. He played the, he had that plumbing bill to pay.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. , he put his overalls on and took care of things. It's all coming back to me.
So the one thing we didn't mention, uh, rooster, I'm surprised about the cigar, is that it has a pig. Yeah. Yeah. Which you are so fond of. Yes. You know, kind of classic, classic. The Cohiba and Sarah. Yeah. Yep. Um, which we're gonna do on an [00:18:00] upcoming episode as well see how Cuba fairs in the battle. But, um, I almost
**Senator:** wanna find a cigar with a pigtail that's bad and just to see what rooster rates it.
I've never seen him say a bad, I'm gonna give it a nine pig.
**Gizmo:** It's a seven, but the pigtail makes it an, it's just one five. The pigtail gets an extra point. , . Listen, some of the best cigars in the world have, uh, pigtails. Mm-hmm. Behi. Yeah. Yeah. It's true. That's
**Senator:** the reason. You know what's weird actually, man, this is a question that I really need to get an answer to at some point.
What makes. A cigar company decide to use and roll a pigtail on a certain cigar
**Gizmo:** versus another. I think my understanding is that the cohiba landero, the, uh, WTO number one, uh, came with a pigtail. It was like, you know, it was, that was kind of, its classic to the Cohiba Landero. And I think that these sizes are imitations just in size of the cohiba answer.
A bek
**Senator:** 52 and 54 ring [00:19:00] age have a big
**Gizmo:** tail. That's, that's true. Usually
**Rooster:** you would see pigtails on smaller range ages, I think maybe. Mm-hmm. because of aesthetics or, uh, maybe
**Gizmo:** and, but yeah, I don't know why one on beca,
**Senator:** like even the Davidov doa, does that have a pigtail? Yeah. Yes it does. And that's like a 52.
I know
**Gizmo:** it. It's
**Bam Bam:** good. It'd be good to get an answer.
**Gizmo:** I would love to know might just tradition, what makes them decide to do that or they think it's classier or a little more elegant with the pigtail on giz call
**Bam Bam:** Habanas say, they'll give you an answer. I will. I'll call them tomorrow morning. Yeah. Call your guy.
Yeah. , my god. .
**Gizmo:** That's how I get quickly banned from the Ho Bonos Festival, them figuring out who I am.
So I, I don't think that despite what I came into this episode thinking, I don't think this is a bad pairing. I, I think that the cigar is, is gonna out punch the bourbon, but it, it's working for me. I'm okay with it.
**Grinder:** It's, it's also a very readily accessible bourbon, right? Yes. You can get it anywhere. Yeah.
It's very cheap and, um, yeah. Yeah. In a [00:20:00] pinch.
**Gizmo:** It'll do. So this was, uh, originally distilled in 1992, the Basil Hayden brand and, uh, by the Hayden family. And I guess it was acquired at some point by Jim Beam, I'm assuming, in the early two thousands. Mid two thousands. And that's, you know, alongside the bourbon boom.
This was one of the brands. I guess this is still a boutique brand in some way. Um, certainly a name. I don't know about it anymore, but um, you know, it certainly rose to the, what it is now, I would say in the last 10 years. Yeah. 15 years. Yeah. I mean, it's basically
**Senator:** in every single bar. Yeah, I was gonna say it really is everywhere.
You would struggle not to find it in a bar. ,
**Bam Bam:** I can't get over how good this is. It's
**Gizmo:** just kidding. I feel like we're not even into the second third. We're still in the well into the first third, and I feel like it's already changing in a, a really, really positive way. It's truly delicious. Yeah, it really is.
I love, love the wrapper on this. Oh yeah. So smooth. Yeah, right. There's two bands on it. Aside from the foot band we already took off. . [00:21:00] There's a really ornate, uh, blue various blues gold band, Don Papen Garcia. And then underneath it there's a thin band that just says the word original. Mm-hmm. . So I guess it's the original line of his, uh, it's the original funded Doris, the original
**Senator:** Fundi
They have funded Doris in the name for this product. It's really
**Gizmo:** bizarre. No. Are they really? I swear to God. Come on. It's on the box. I just read it. Yeah. Really?
**Senator:** Yeah. Yeah. When you look it up, the, the name shows up. What
**Bam Bam:** does that word mean? Is there a meaning to the fun word? Funded. Oh, in Spanish? Yeah.
Fundamental. Ah, is that right? Okay.
**Gizmo:** I think
**Bam Bam:** All right. Google,
don't ask a question unless you know the answer to it. Founders is
**Grinder:** the
**Senator:** translation
**Bam Bam:** founder, founders, that's close founder,
**Senator:** but a lot of things, when you search this cigars says Don Pepin Garcia Blue Label funded dos. But on that, I'm actually very curious. Based [00:22:00] on the flavor notes you're getting in this first, first quarter, let's say, of the cigar, do you get Cuban esque
**Gizmo:** notes?
I do, absolutely. Yes. Yes. It doesn't taste like a Cuban, but no, it is, it has notes that a Cuban has. Oh, for everything we discussed
**Bam Bam:** like a few minutes ago, the fruit and um, you know, that light.
**Senator:** I just say that because I really think that this smokes more like a Cuban than the, my father Lance. Sarah, I agree with you so far there's no, like, that I would pick out instantly.
Yeah. So obviously New World where this, I would like think about it for a second. It resonates.
**Grinder:** I remember when you said that in, in that, that review in that pod, and, uh, I hadn't, I don't, you know, the, it didn't connect at me, you know, at that time. But here it definitely, definitely resonates.
**Bam Bam:** Now, if I had to ask you which one you like better than my father and this.
Oh, we just, this guy,
**Gizmo:** we just started there. Yeah. As, yeah, as of right this moment with cigar. Yeah. I, I think, I think this one, but I really do like them. My father number four's, but I'm gonna reach That's right. For these two in different situations. Yeah. I'm ha
**Bam Bam:** I like this [00:23:00] so far, much more than I do. But
**Grinder:** to Senator's point, what the, there was, there was a rub on that cigar, I believe, because it didn't finish very well, right?
No, it finished. No, it finished. It finished, it finished stronger. Sorry. Yeah. Beautifully actually. So, you know, we'll see. I think the only
**Senator:** one who didn't love that cigar was, uh, pupa. Puah. Of
**Gizmo:** course. . . The other thing too that I think needs to be noted for Nicaraguan tobacco is how this isn't very Nicaragua to me.
No, it's not. You know, great point. Look, if you told me this was Ecuadorian, through and through, if this was Dominican, through and through, I would believe you, you know. But the fact that these manufacturers are finding ways to use Nicaragua tobacco to create something that's maybe as close to Cuban in, in, in this size that we've had so far.
Yeah. , it's pretty shocking
**Bam Bam:** to me. Curious if the seed is, is Cuban Cuban seed. So I,
**Grinder:** I've, I've, I've wondered sometimes, because oftentimes, you know, a lot of Dominican manufacturers and growers will say, you know, we have Cuban seed tobacco. [00:24:00] Right. Or wherever. Um, but it never tastes like Cuban cigars, right?
Yeah. Because it's the soil. It's the soils seed. So what are you, what are you actually saying by, you have Cuban seeds. It's
**Bam Bam:** a marketing ploys. Marketing .
**Gizmo:** Yep. Yeah.
**Senator:** I mean, that's like saying you're gonna take some vine of Cabernet grapes from Napa and plant it New Jersey and it's gonna taste like a Napa cat.
I mean, it's like all the soil, the climate.
**Gizmo:** So this is, by the way, this is Cuban seeded. It is Cuban seed. It is Cuban seeded grown. Grown in Nicaragua. Yeah. But I just don't think that that matters because we've had so many Cuban seeds. Sure. They taste nothing like it. Sure. You know, like we said, it's a marketing plo.
Yeah. This is really relaxing. Nonetheless. It's very good. It's
**Bam Bam:** so good, dude. It's, it is delicious. No
**Rooster:** matter, whatever, however they blended it, I mean, it's
**Gizmo:** delicious. Delicious. Yeah. The fact that I could sell one of my boxes of funded Doris right now and buy 10 boxes of these is, are you gonna do that? I'm thinking about it.
I mean, I'm, [00:25:00] this is really great. Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** You're not gonna, you're not do that. You would do that. He's not gonna do that. You wouldn't do that. No way, .
**Gizmo:** I might. I mean, just the
**Rooster:** fact that, you know, you're paying like 40, 50, $60 for some of those Cuban lens arrows and lawns, tails. And this is like under 10 bucks.
Yeah. And the amount of satisfaction you
**Gizmo:** get out of this, it's off the charts.
**Senator:** And I smoked a lot of these. The construction every time in every one is perfect.
**Gizmo:** Remember a bad one? Nope. That's never the case with the funding. When you pull a Cuban LAN arrow or lone. You, you're stressing a little bit that it's not gonna draw.
Like it's absolutely in the back of my mind, every time I stand at my tower, I'm like, all right, I'm gonna do that. And we put a little asterisk in my mind that this might not go well.
**Bam Bam:** That very expensive Cuban Len Sera. Exactly. Oh
**Gizmo:** yeah. You know? And then plus, if it's not kept absolutely perfectly at the right humidity, then you know there's more moisture and, and then it even tightens up more.
It's just like, it's a recipe for disaster. It's
**Grinder:** the heartbreak. There's another reason why that price [00:26:00] increase is just crowding out the people. You want to not crowd out. Yeah, because, because people that know are gonna look at that and be like, Yeah. I mean, I'm gonna have an attrition rate that's higher than normal and I'm paying all this for, for, for stuff that I'm gonna throw away.
Therefore, the pri the actual price per cigar is going up.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, yeah. But I wonder if it's
**Rooster:** gonna backfire, you know, on havanas one day and people are just gonna realize, like,
**Gizmo:** hope. So, , that's, I mean, look at us. Yeah. We're, we're the prime candidates for having an absolute change in experience and change of heart.
Mm-hmm. . Yeah. I mean, all of us are coming in here with New World Lance Serros on a weekly, even daily basis that are not Cuban. Yeah. Says,
**Bam Bam:** says the one that's got a hundred boxes of Cohiba is .
**Gizmo:** That's not true. That is not true. Have you run outta space? No. ? No, I'm doing good. God bless you. Doing right. I may sell some stuff, get some customs.
We'll see. But I'm not la We'll last you next month. I am not going to outgrow, [00:27:00] I'm not going to outgrow my vault. How's the freeze been working out for you? The freeze was great. How long did that last? Two hours . So Oh, you, I thought you were saying the freeze protocol. My Wait, wait,
**Grinder:** wait. I do, I do want to come back to the freeze
**Gizmo:** Uh, my freeze is working out really good. I've only replaced stuff that I don't. That's not a , that's not, excuse me. That I've, ok, lemme that you went through. Lemme that you're replenishing that I smoked. You need to replenish. Yeah. So I bought a box of, uh, as an example, I bought a box of Punch Punch cuz I finished a box of those.
Did you? I bought another box of each up and number twos cuz I finished a box of those. So I'm only replacing stuff that, that your idea of fruit and, and is replenishment . And for the podcast, I'll buy stuff for the pod, but that's it. So it's like
**Rooster:** I don't have punch punch 2017, so I'm
**Gizmo:** gonna get that. You just gotta, the 2016, you're,
**Grinder:** you're maintaining safety stock.
You're Exactly, you're
**Gizmo:** not, that's not a freeze. That's not a freeze. Giz . It's a, it's a freeze. Then I thaw for a minute and then I freeze again. We're [00:28:00] gonna need an intervention. Yeah, it might. I think an hour of
**Grinder:** atonement accountability hour. Oh, please,
**Bam Bam:** can we schedule that next week? Pass, pass all
**Grinder:** in, and then we'll roll, roll right into the next accountability hour about this, the, the other
**Gizmo:** freeze.
So tell me about that. Let's, oh, the freeze protocol. So we, um, we'll talk about it, uh, in an upcoming episode, Cuban episode. But, um, you know, you, when you come home with, uh, cigars from Cuba, everything that Havana ships out, they freeze at the Havana's distribution facility to try to kill the beetle larvas.
Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, when you come home with something that. Hasn't been through that proto, you know, that process. Uh, you want to make sure that you freeze everything so you don't potentially introduce Correct. Yeah. Beetles into your, I mean, imagine beetles going through my tower or any of our towers.
It's a nightmare. Like it's, it's nightmare fuel. So you, you know, you do a freeze protocol. Did you guys freeze? I, I froze all their stuff. I double vacuum. Seal both sides of a bag. Vacuum seal it. You put it in the fridge for 24 hours. Deep freeze for 72 [00:29:00] back into the fridge for 24 to prevent condensation issues.
Yeah. Room temperature for 24. Nice. And then
**Grinder:** you're good to go. I'm sorry if we're rehashing
**Gizmo:** stuff we already talked about enough. No, no, no. We actually, we, yeah, well we have the Cuban episodes are coming up, but this is a new topic. Yeah, we, we didn't uh, so I put it in the freezer
**Rooster:** first and then put it in
**Gizmo:** the fridge.
Yeah, I did the fridge just to try to step it up. Cause I have so many of 'em. I didn't want to have con condensation. But,
**Rooster:** so all the food that was in the freezer thought out,
**Gizmo:** it's well worth it. pull it all out.
**Bam Bam:** Priorities.
**Gizmo:** Priorities. Yeah. Lori went down in the, the, the freezer downstairs. She's like, what the hell?
Where are my steaks? Why are there 200 cigars in the freezer right now? I said, oh, they, they're all the lizards. None of them are mine.
**Senator:** Yeah, they're all in concussion protocol.
**Gizmo:** It's for the tasting panel. . No. I'm surprised. I, I've only had the ashes not holding on on mine. It's a lenaro, but I've had sucks. Okay. It's, it's not [00:30:00] bad. It's fallen off twice with really no little effort
**Rooster:** on. That's about the limit. About half an inch to an inch. It's about an inch
**Gizmo:** amateur. This is, this is not,
**Grinder:** I wouldn't mark that as a demerit.
No,
**Gizmo:** thank you. That's my attorney. I
**Bam Bam:** agree. Yeah. He was my attorney.
**Grinder:** I, I wouldn't mark the merit on the cigar. Mr. Defend the cigar. Not you. . .
**Gizmo:** Oh,
**Senator:** User error. The best user, so fond of saying
**Grinder:** gizmo. User error. Oh, I
**Bam Bam:** like that. I gotta use that
**Grinder:** more often. You're
**Gizmo:** such a technologist, . I am. Yeah. This cigar is, is really, really nice. Guys, I'm getting wonderful chocolate, little fruit, little weather. Even on the, just the normal draw, not just through the retro hell.
Little bit of what I like is it's not very spicy. It's true. I, I like that the spice is, is toned down in this, which for a Nicaragua is surprising me. Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** Pleasantly. But also on the retro hale. It's, it's surprising on a Nicaraguan that I get a lot of sweetness on that retro. Yeah. Yeah. Usually it's peppery, but it's [00:31:00] not.
**Senator:** I agree with that. And the thing I love about it is it just makes this cigar very versatile. Mm-hmm. like a cigar. That's really spicy for me. I'm only gonna have that in the evening after dinner. I'm not gonna have that in the morning or even early afternoon. But when a cigars like this, I, this, I could wake up and have this,
**Gizmo:** this would be great with a cup of coffee right in the morning.
Great. With a cup of coffee plus cigar off the day. Yeah. Yeah. In fact,
**Bam Bam:** it makes sense to have several boxes of in your collection. I
**Gizmo:** think because they're so cheap and, and time, I can't imagine they're not gonna get better. Right. I mean,
**Grinder:** I mean, this is excellent. It's the any time of the day cigar. Yeah. To, to Senator's Point.
So
**Gizmo:** versatile. Yeah. And there's something that is happening on the front of my tongue that I, it's a little tingly. It's really pleasant. I'm really enjoying it. It's very pleasant. Hmm. You
**Bam Bam:** may have to go to the doctor for that.
Dr. Bam. Uh, yeah. Step into my office.
Enter at your own risk. .
**Gizmo:** Do you take insurance? ?
**Bam Bam:** I do not. , [00:32:00]
**Gizmo:** it's like, what else is tingling today? .
**Bam Bam:** Well, let me see. . I have some experience
**Gizmo:** with that.
**Rooster:** Oh, Jesus.
**Gizmo:** Bam. Always takes the hits. Oh God. So, um, The World Baseball Classic just finished, which was a really awesome event. Extremely entertaining. Extremely entertaining.
The US seemed like they were gonna take it. Yep. And then Japan show, Hey, struck out Mike Trout. How, uh, apropo was that? I saw a meme like, can you imagine if these guys were on the same team? How good they be bro.
**Bam Bam:** Honestly, that was the most dramatic baseball right there. Yeah. That I've seen in a very long time.
Yeah. Yeah. Just those two
**Gizmo:** guys facing off. I mean, I wanted to see that matchup Oh, dude. For the longest time. So cool.
**Rooster:** So cool that that happened and that was great. Yeah. The way it ended.
**Gizmo:** Oh. ,
**Senator:** I feel like Opinion on the World Baseball Classic did like a complete 180 by the end. Mm-hmm. . Oh, yeah. Because I feel like early on when Diaz went
**Gizmo:** down, well, Edwin Diaz getting hurt.
**Senator:** Ugh. Everyone was like, they, this is why they shouldn't play this. This is gonna fuck up teams in their ability to win a World [00:33:00] Series. And everyone was so upset about it, and then all of a sudden it's getting really competitive. Yeah. And that matchup at the end. Everyone's like, wow, this is pretty cool.
Yeah. And it only happens once every four years. It's not like this is happening all the time. And of course the Mets
**Bam Bam:** get the shaft. Of course. , .
**Gizmo:** So I, I, I've kind
**Rooster:** of always had an issue with this, like, why do they call it the World Series where the world doesn't
**Gizmo:** participate? It's true.
Because
**Grinder:** it was an American marketing scheme back in the day.
Mm. To get more attention to it. Yeah. I get, I guess, and it, sorry, it was also coincidental with World's Fair.
**Gizmo:** Mm-hmm. Ah, okay. And there's baseball players from around the world. The best players in the world are playing in the in, in the mlb.
**Bam Bam:** I didn't know that was the history of the name of the, uh, world Series.
**Senator:** We also use this as Americans in like every sport. Mm-hmm. . It's like the Eagles win a Super Bowl. They're world champions. World world s champions. Like we, we say it for everything. Like it doesn't matter what sport.
**Grinder:** My, my British French always give me a hard time about that. The World Series and like, just busting my chops about the World [00:34:00] Series.
Like who's, who's watching the fucking World Series from you guys? .
**Bam Bam:** They're not wrong.
**Gizmo:** And then, so the Cuban team was doing very, very well. Mm. Um, obviously we, we, what did we beat them? 14 crush. Four crush, crushed them. And then the big story out of it, which is obviously interesting to us, is guys who, you know, love, you know, going to Cuba and love the Sure.
The Cuban product is the defector who decided not to get on the plane. Yeah. Pretty, pretty amazing story. So the World Baseball Classics only been around, I guess since 2006, but. I mean, that was a pretty wild story. Uh, Yvonne Preto Gonzalez, he was the team, Cuba's ba uh, bullpen catcher, and, uh, decided to not show up for the return flight.
Hmm. And I guess declare asylum status to try to get asylum status to stay here. Wow.
**Senator:** I wish he would've thought this through a little bit more because any one of us would've happily boarded the plane and put on his uniform, but he could've [00:35:00] stayed here. .
**Gizmo:** I'm surprised the whole team been doing it. .
**Bam Bam:** Yeah.
Probably would've paid him handsomely as well. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** But that's a pretty big move to, you know, to use that world stage to avoid, get back on getting back on the plane. You know, there's a mass exodus out of Cuba. That's true. I know. But that's a pretty ballsy one to pretty ballsy way to, it takes a, it takes a lot
**Grinder:** public way to do it.
Yeah. It takes a lot of balls to, to even, you know, leave your, if you have family back
**Bam Bam:** at home or does he have money, where will he stay? Is he going to eat? And
**Grinder:** gizmo and I were talking about it before, just considering the state of, you know, Russian Cuban relations and therefore, you know, some contention between the United States allowing this defector, potentially insulting Russia or whatever.
I don't know. It might be a stretch, but nonetheless, it's, there's a lot of, there could be a lot of politics going on too.
**Senator:** I have to assume he has family
**Gizmo:** here. I would assume so too. Or has some sort of setup ready to go. Yeah. But I mean, it's not like he was a starter. It's not like he [00:36:00] made some sort of splash.
He's the bullpen catcher. He catches the pitches Yeah. As they're warming up. So it's not like he has some sort of guaranteed spot. Yeah. But he, he can make more money working at McDonald's. Sure. Probably.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. You know, And it was in, you know, the game. Where was the game? Japan?
**Gizmo:** No, it was in Miami. Oh, the, that game was in
**Bam Bam:** Miami, which is a Cuban stronghold.
So I'm sure there's a big community there that'll help him. Yeah, it's a smart move.
**Grinder:** Yeah. Oh, there's a massive Cuban Yeah. A a great thriving, yes. Like an awesome community there. Sure.
**Gizmo:** That hates Cuba. Yeah,
**Senator:** they do. Yeah. I just hope he doesn't have family left in Cuba, because I know that's gonna be tough.
Let's be real. That's not gonna go well.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. You know, I was gonna ask that question, but Yeah, it's true.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. So, I mean, wish 'em all the best, but Definit wish is, is family the best? Yeah, that's a risky move, man. That's a risky move. And it just says a lot about, you know, what's going on in Cuba, man. I mean, , you know, we'll talk about that when we recap our trip in the coming weeks.
But, you know, it's, uh, [00:37:00] it's just a tough situation, you know, even the people at the, at the highest levels of power are having problem problems, getting, getting food and outside of the government. I mean, it's just, it's a, it's a really big problem, you know, where you, you wake up every day wondering if you're gonna be able to feed your kids.
Yeah. You know? And even a guy who plays baseball for the national team, competing on the world stage means nothing. Means nothing. You know? It's terrible.
**Senator:** Except who was the guy, the, uh, the pitcher who like struck out the side and then got signed, uh, by a MLB team? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Are
**Gizmo:** you serious? Signed a deal.
What? Yep. I forget what his name was. Who was it?
**Bam Bam:** Wait a minute. On the spot he got signed. Yeah, the next day. You're joking.
**Senator:** I swear to God. So does he get to. I assume so. Yeah, dude. Yeah. I'm not sure what team he played for, but he basically struck out the side, I think it was like three Americans. He struck out and some scout from MLB team was like, wow, this guy's dynamite.
And the next day they gave him a contract. That
**Gizmo:** is awesome. So in Nicaraguan pitcher, wow. Struck out three MLB players [00:38:00] and his Nicaraguan, his name is Duque Hebert. Cool. Five 10. Five 10 on junior, 70 pounds. 5, 1070 pounds with Cuban. Yeah. But it's
**Senator:** like stories like that, honestly, like you know, the World Baseball Classic for us, like it's entertainment and all of that.
but like that guy's life is gonna change just by striking out three MLB players. He struck out
**Gizmo:** one Soto, Julio Rodriguez, and then Manny Machado. . Oh my God. . Oh, that's how you do a boy. Oh
**Bam Bam:** yeah. Oh shit. That's, that's, that's insane talent. You know
**Gizmo:** what's cool too is the guy's 5, 10, 1 70. Yeah. Little guy.
Little guy. Crazy. Wow.
**Bam Bam:** That's pretty amazing.
**Grinder:** Love it. Body. The body can do amazing things, man. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Especially when you're, when you're determined.
**Grinder:** Yeah. And trained. I saw, I saw a video. of, uh, Moxie Bos? No, it was a, it was . It was a, uh, it was a guy in like Venezuela, and he was pitching, uh, pennies to his son, and he was just tossing [00:39:00] pennies to the kid.
And he's pinging 'em out, like, and he's taking these full swings against pennies and he is like throwing the pennies pretty hard. And, uh, and, you know, in the middle of a dirt field, this kid has, his hand eye coordination is fantastic. And he's clearly training him to like, be a great ball player. And just, I was thinking like, damn, some people are so motivated.
Yeah. You know, to, to make a dream and to make it happen. And, you know, they, that's the, those are the people that excel because they're so motivated. They don't have anything, but they have the, the intention and the fortitude to do it. Like, it's amazing. You guys are gonna make me
**Bam Bam:** cry. . Sorry. .
**Gizmo:** Let it go. Bam.
**Bam Bam:** All right. I will later today, Uhhuh .
**Gizmo:** So boys we're coming. I, I guess up on the halfway point, I'm smoking this very slowly. I'm really enjoying it. Of the, uh, Don Papen Garcia trying to pace myself. Yeah. Blue Whale Landero. Um, it's continuing to, it's delicious. It's [00:40:00] changed and it's still delicious evolve for me.
Has it, has it changed? It has not for sure. Not for me. It hasn't changed much for me. No. That's
**Rooster:** getting about the same notes
**Gizmo:** that I was getting in the beginning. Yeah. I'm in Rooster's Camp. Maybe it's getting better for me. For sure. It goes, it could be a bit
**Bam Bam:** more pronounced, but that's not, you know, natural for most cigars.
**Gizmo:** It's amazing again that this is Nicaraguan. I can't believe that. I can't believe that.
**Senator:** Yeah. I mean, honestly, it's just nice to see that there's clearly. More versatility than we would expect in Nicaraguan tobacco. Yeah. Because I feel like whenever we review a stick, if we don't even announce where it's from, we instantly peg a Nicaraguan for like a bold, you know, really full smoke.
This completely defies that. Yeah. So I'd love to try, you know, other Nicaraguans that are blended in a way like this, that are totally different in Alan
**Grinder:** Atol. Of course. Yeah.
**Senator:** I mean, any, just, I love that not all Nicaraguan tobacco has to like really punch
**Gizmo:** you. Use, I, I think we often, you know, prior, I would say almost to the, [00:41:00] to this block of LANs and Lonsdale, when we'd bring up, uh, a Nicaraguan cigar that we were unfamiliar with, we'd read about it.
We'd learn about it, and everything was the patron killer. The patron killer, the patron killer . And it's like, I'd love to see more of this, which is the Cuban Yeah. Going after the Cuban market. The, the Cuban Christ. A parallel to Cuban. Yeah. Yeah. But do you think that was the intent, if they're calling it the funded Doris?
I would think so. Yeah. I mean, if the Fonda Doris is in the name and the marketing, I would think that they're absolutely
**Senator:** targeting the pigtail also. I mean, there's a lot of similarities.
**Bam Bam:** Have you guys had any of the other Violas by Dom Peppin?
**Gizmo:** I've not, other than my father's off the, out of the blue
**Rooster:** line.
The
**Gizmo:** Blue Line, yeah. Blue Label. No.
**Bam Bam:** I had one at our previous lounge. It was a Toro powerful cigar. Really powerful. I, I've
**Grinder:** had Don Pepin before I, but I've never had the blue label. Okay. And they are, they're strong. They,
**Bam Bam:** yeah, they're really,
**Grinder:** really strong. [00:42:00]
**Gizmo:** So I wanna mention, cuz I saw this box sitting over that rooster head.
So it comes, the cigars come in a really nice, uh, cedar box of 24 cigars. And what's cool about it is that there's a box date on the bottom. Oh cool. Which is very unique for New World cigars to have a stamped box, box date. Also with, Very similar to Cuban , uh, factory code. Aren't they trying to be Cuban
Yeah. . And then, oh, even better, it says in the same way that it would on a Cuban box. H o n Cuba. Hecho and Mano. Yeah. What Hecho and Mano is, what's the date on a box? Uh, November 22. Okay. So let me ask you this, this is a duplicate of Cuban cigar. That's
**Grinder:** pretty cool. Do you think they intended to, to, to create the funded Doris, or they they found gold and said, let's market it like,
**Gizmo:** like that?
That's a really good question. You know, maybe they tasted it and said, wow, this is really, uh, this is really close to, did you notice anything else on the [00:43:00] box? Well, I noticed the signature. No, the,
**Rooster:** the front. There's no clasp. There's no lock.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. Just open, there's gorilla tape on . Well, that's your gorilla tape.
That's not his . The box doesn't stay shut. Oh, okay.
**Senator:** Yeah. That is the one problem. Mm.
**Gizmo:** Right. But that's pretty cool that there's a box code, a box date. And the same font. H uh, h o n mi, h o in Miami. Hmm. Well,
**Senator:** look, if we want the box to close with a class, we can spend $1,600 on a box of Fundies, , .
**Gizmo:** More than that, that's, I think more, yeah.
That's very cool. So I, I certainly think that this cigar is absolutely aiming for Cuban tobacco.
**Grinder:** Well, God bless him. I mean, we need more of 'em, as you said. Oh yeah.
**Senator:** Yeah. I just truly think it's one of the closest, like, I really stand by this to me, of all new world cigars that we've probably reviewed on this podcast.
This has the most Cuban esque flavors to it than Sure. In my opinion. Sure.
**Gizmo:** Same. [00:44:00] So we're coming into Spring Boys coming out of the winter, which is nice. Thank God we had a mild, pretty mild winter, I would say. Mm. Kind of. But it's starting to warm up a little bit. And uh, what I find is, and we've talked about this on the pod before, but I find as the seasons change, my preferences and what I reach for, and what I'm looking to smoke change as well.
And I've had some like cigars that I've re fallen in love with recently, and I'm curious if you guys have had that experience too. Um, namely for me, number one was the, the late hour. I haven't touched that cigar in a long time. But you didn't hate it? No, I just didn't reach for it. Right. Yeah. You know, I, I still don't reach for that, that often.
Neither do I as much
**Rooster:** as the other davidov, like the Dominicans
**Gizmo:** or the millenniums.
**Grinder:** Yeah, it's true. I've been, I've been reaching a lot for, uh, instead of the late hour for the, the other Churchill. Oh dude, the
**Gizmo:** white label Churchill. Yeah. I
**Grinder:** love that cigar. It's so good. I love
**Bam Bam:** that. I've only had three of those.
They're, I'm [00:45:00] a big fan. Big
**Gizmo:** fan. So what Ola do you guys choose? I have, I have
**Grinder:** a bunch of, uh, a Toro. Uh, yeah. But I have a bunch of REOs
**Senator:** Robusto. They also make it a Churchill. That's the one I tried
**Gizmo:** for the first time. Yeah. Delicious is good. It's delicious. So what's the flavor profile on that compared to the millennium versus the even the late hour?
I think
**Senator:** it's a milder version of any of those. Mm-hmm. heavy cedar. I,
**Gizmo:** a grand cracker, a little Graham cracker, citrus. I gotta try . You gotta
**Bam Bam:** turn his mic off. . I,
**Grinder:** I don't get it. I don't get any citrus, but I, I get, um, I do it heavy Graham cracker, I would say. Yeah. I wouldn't, I I would also get a little slight leather and some coffee.
Definitely coffee. And there is that slight, um, davit off twang. Mm-hmm. Uh, cuz it's, it's got a davidoff flavor, but it's very subtle. It's muted. It's not as prominent. And I love that the prominent ddo flavor. Uh, but with this balance, it, it was kind
**Bam Bam:** of nice. That's so good. I think it's, it could be pod worthy.
I
**Grinder:** think [00:46:00]
**Gizmo:** it definitely is. Yeah. Don't have to do it. No, we should do it. Yeah, absolutely. You know the other one that, uh, I kind of, you knowI patroni, we smoke a ton of those. I also smoke a ton of the Churchill, um, the Diplomatico in the 19 64 1, but I've really been reaching almost more than any of the others in that line for some reason, as it's, I, maybe it's a little sweeter.
The torpedo in Maduro. Oh yeah. That's another good one. That's a, I mean, it's just good cigar. I haven't, I hadn't been reaching for and I'm kind of pulling again. Okay. Very nice. And then my last one on the list that I, as far as new world goes, I have a couple Cubans we can talk about too, but I reached for, I have the first cigar I smoked outside this year, actually as, it was a little, it was like 60 degrees the other day.
I did the, uh, Tae Petite Casados. Oh dude. Which I haven't had in love those year and a half. Love those. That
**Bam Bam:** is a little home run hitter. That's it. Oh.
**Gizmo:** Oh. No doubts. I wish they made that blend in a Churchill
**Bam Bam:** with a cup of coffee late afternoon. It's really
**Grinder:** fantastic. Yeah, I was just talking to somebody about, How great that cigar is.
It's awesome. And [00:47:00] it's know, it's just an awesome Anytime
**Gizmo:** cigar. And I just think it's cool. It only comes in a 50 cab.
**Bam Bam:** It's affordable. Yeah, affordable. So when you lift it out the box, it's like that little football. Yeah. Very cool. Yeah.
**Rooster:** So, uh, Padron also not, I mean, they, it's been out for a little bit now in the family reserve line.
They have a, I think it's a 60 ring gauge. It's the, it's the 95
**Gizmo:** number. 95. 95, yeah. So once
**Rooster:** we get into like a bigger ring gauge, maybe we might wanna
**Gizmo:** That's a new one. Yeah. That cigar scored. I think that was the number one of Cigar Journal 2022 was the, the number 95. Has anyone had it? I have not. I've had it.
Yeah. Do you
**Bam Bam:** like it? You like it really? Yeah, it was
**Rooster:** good. Really? Yeah. I mean, obviously
**Gizmo:** the size, you know, it's a 60. Yeah. It's big. But, uh, but short, Yeah. Don't love that . I do not love that. I'm re I'm so resistant as we're going into, like, it's a jawbreaker thinking about like 54 ring gauge cigars and stuff.
Oh, we just have to try. We have to do it. We to do it. I mean, 54 [00:48:00] is magic. I'll just bitch and moan my way through it. listeners always emailing, you know, it, it
**Grinder:** gets
**Gizmo:** un, it gets unpleasant, you know,
**Rooster:** but it's, it's, I think it's, it's got a little box press. It's not, you know, it's
**Gizmo:** not round, so it's okay. Feels, feels a little better than that box.
Press 60. . It's
**Grinder:** your, so it's a bricks,
**Gizmo:** it's a shipping box. So have you guys had any other cigars that you've kind of been reaching back for that you haven't haven't gone for in a while? Yeah.
**Rooster:** For me it's been the bbb
**Gizmo:** f I mean I, the Beco Espino. I used to, I used used
**Rooster:** to love the Bbar Bellaco Sonos while back, and then I kind of, you know, didn't really enjoy them.
**Gizmo:** You know, I have, especially the
**Rooster:** fresh ones. But then I got, somebody sent me and then I got something 20, I think they're 20 elevens or 20 fourteens. There are, but they're,
**Gizmo:** oh, my . It's like, honey. Yeah. The
**Bam Bam:** one tough thing about a tower is if it's fully stocked, you're not always digging. So there's stuff in the back that you're not smoking.
I get lazy and if I'm in a rush, I'm [00:49:00] grabbing what I see and leave . I was waiting for it. I know, but you know what I mean. Yeah. So there's stuff back there that you
**Gizmo:** probably sometimes have. I, I think we've talked about this in my, in my, it happens in my vault. I, I keep stuff in the back that I don't wanna reach for.
Okay. So if I don't see it, I don't think about it. I'm moving fast mm-hmm. , so I'm not emptying out boxes that I can't replace. Sure. Yeah. You know, if I could
**Rooster:** redesign Bams Tower, I would have doors on front and the back. Perfect. And it should
**Gizmo:** be on wheels, so just flip it
**Bam Bam:** around. Love that. Like a, like a sunglass case that rotates.
I would love that. Yeah. Oh yeah. Doors on all sides. Doors on
**Grinder:** all the sides. I've actually been reaching to the late hour lot. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, nice. Mean like,
**Gizmo:** um, isn't that cigar the ribo? Which is a surprise for me. I've been
**Grinder:** really enjoying, I've gotten a, I got a box recently and I've just been, you know, I hadn't had it for a long time.
I think the last time I had it was maybe, um, uh, pagoda gave me one in December or so. Hmm. Um, and, uh, It was, uh, it was, you know, it was great then and, and I got the box and just been digging into
**Gizmo:** it. Mm-hmm. [00:50:00]
**Rooster:** I feel like it's a winter cigar for some reason.
**Gizmo:** It's kind of, you know, it's, I didn't really reach for it too much this winter.
A holiday
**Bam Bam:** cigar kind of a thing. I don't know.
**Senator:** I mean, it's a winter cigar because that stick, as much as I love it, it, it's got some strength to it. Sure. Oh yeah. And especially when you get a fresh box of them, uh, you gotta either have that around a meal mm-hmm. or in the winter with like a really solid spirit.
Yeah. That can hold up against it. But what I found, I, I think I mentioned this to Gizz, is if you let them sit, kind of like we're talking about stuff just gets tucked away in the back of the tower, you forget about it for a while, it smooths out some of those rough edges over time. Like, I've lit one up after not having one for, I don't know, maybe eight, nine months.
And I was like, wow, this is way smoother than I remember that cigar. So, .
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. The shark. That's another one.
**Gizmo:** I haven't been reacher for that. I did that. I I like that in the summer. Yeah. I take that to Florida when I go, I, you know, I'll, I'll take that cigar a lot. I, because it smokes so great. It does indoor outdoor [00:51:00] whatever.
So if I'm outdoors, I'm smoking all bunch worlds boxes. Haven't
**Bam Bam:** reached for that. Yeah.
**Grinder:** Uh, I'm, so, I, I smoke, I used to smoke AVO domains a lot. Mm-hmm. and I bought a bunch when I heard that,
**Gizmo:** that mark on Oh, that's right. They were discontinuing that. Right.
**Grinder:** Discontinuing it. So, uh, I've been pulling them a lot recently, getting back into
**Gizmo:** those, which has been great.
The other thing I think that kind of prompted this in my brain was talking to Senator. I think we were here, uh, is the RGUs, uh, series P number two. Mm-hmm. , I really love that cigar. I hadn't been reaching for it. And kind of like Rooster said, I kind of fell outta love with it a little bit. Um, like I have with the BBB F but that hasn't recovered yet.
I just don't reach for that much. Mm-hmm. , I, I go for the Royal Corona way more from B uh, BOLI Bar. Oh yeah. But the Parus P two, I had some stuff that was sitting around in my tower. I pulled one. Man, that's good. It's, it's so good. It had a sweetness to it. Mm-hmm. that was, that. The young ones don't have that.
It that with a little bit of age. I think it had three or four years on it. Yeah. I mean, it just, I [00:52:00] totally fell in love with that cigar and I can't stop reaching for them now. Sure. They, they change man
**Rooster:** Cuban cigars. You let 'em sit for a while, even if it's like, about six months a year. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** It's a, it's a different cigar.
Yeah. Mm-hmm. , it's not the same. And I'm hoping for that with my bbs because, you know, Senator gives me the eye, might take a little longer say it. He's giving me the eye during the pod here for the listener . I just fell outta love with the Bbf. I just don't reach for it, man. Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** You know, one thing we haven't talked a lot about is the, the patron 50th.
Mm-hmm. the hammer. That's, we haven't really love that. And that's an incredible cigar and we haven't given it
**Gizmo:** enough attention. Really. Well, I think when episode 100 comes, I think that's what we need to do. Yeah, that's true. That's true. Last time. Cause we're coming up on it, man. I mean, we're not, we're not that far away.
No. The last
**Senator:** time we all lit that cigar up was, uh, pub's birthday. Yep. Yeah. His 50th. Yep. We lit up the 50 year grace at our clubhouse. Yeah. I think
**Gizmo:** it's on her Instagram. Yeah, that's right. That's right. We've put up, there's a photo with a cigar. Yeah. That is an excellent cigar. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's up there.
It's, to me it's very different than the 80, 80 year that we love so much. Yeah. [00:53:00] Uh, that we did on our one year anniversary. But those two cigars are just parallel for me. Is the best of the best of the best. Sure. You know, but yeah, I just, I, I find it odd how my palate changes. Like even in the winter, I don't reach for Schwa Supreme, I don't reach for Corona's Claro.
But in the summer I'm gonna be hitting those boxes very hard.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. The Schwa Act, I brought one tonight to have after our recording. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Missed that cigar
**Rooster:** for me. The thing with Cuban cigar says that you can smoke multiple Cuban cigars Yeah. That are not heavy. Yeah. And,
**Bam Bam:** and have a unique experience with each, each cigar.
Each one. Yeah. And that's, that's the beauty of a session. . If you can sit down and do
**Gizmo:** three or
**Rooster:** four. Yeah. I mean it would be hard to smoke like a Nicaragua full-bodied smoke.
**Gizmo:** Back to, I mean I'm sure we have done it, but you
**Bam Bam:** know, senator's done it. ,
**Gizmo:** we sure have. What? What hasn't
**Rooster:** he done? ? He smoked three eight.
What would you
**Gizmo:** Four. Four. Four 80th in a row. That's [00:54:00] psycho. There's an issue
**Bam Bam:** over here. Yeah. . That's
**Gizmo:** Who's your legendary cigar? It gets wasteful after I get off the phone with Haas. Tomorrow I'm calling the fbi call Connecticut . You got it. Each
**Senator:** one was better than the last. I don't believe that was great.
I'm serious. You have to understand, this was early on when I had just started getting into the eighties. So you had that cigar for the first time. Your mind is completely blown. Yep. You sit there and say, this is one of the greatest cigars I've ever had. So when it's that early on, you're just cra you, you're chasing that experience again.
And I got a little gluttonous one night and just chased it a little quickly.
**Grinder:** Wow. Chasing the dragon.
**Senator:** That's right. . But to Russ's point about, you know, it'd be hard to smoke. Certain Nicaraguans just back to back in a night. That's what excites me about this cigar. Like if we could find more nicaraguans like this, like you could smoke, you know, three, four of these in a night, you'd want the flavor profile to differ, but they don't all have to be so strong and full like most Nicaraguans are.
So I would love to just try to find some others that are more [00:55:00] medium that kind of fit this, uh, in terms of like body or strength. Sure.
**Grinder:** I, I mean, just coming back to your comment of back-to-back cigars during the pandemic I was smoking, I was chain smoking cigars and they were all Nicaragua . And they were like, yeah, you just kind of get used to it.
**Gizmo:** Well, you kind of get high. And his beard just kept growing. growing, growing it. It must have been a direct correlation to the Yeah. A amount of Nicaraguan tobacco. Yeah. By the way, grinder looks like a different person today. Yeah. So Grinder came in by the way. Fully. The beard is gone. Beard.
**Rooster:** Beard was gone
**Gizmo:** last time too.
I remember. Slim and Trim. Slim and Trim. Hey, slim Down. Be careful
**Bam Bam:** tonight.
Thank you. You're welcome. Look great.
**Grinder:** Yeah. Thanks.
**Gizmo:** Appreciate it guys. So, uh, we got an email that I wanted to share with you guys from, uh, from Tony, aka Lizard Bone. By the way, I love when Lizard Lizard, uh, listeners email us [00:56:00] because that's my high school nickname, by the way.
**Senator:** Bone. Bone. I knew Bam was
**Grinder:** gonna say that.
**Senator:** It's . As soon as you said that name, I'm like, bam is sitting here saying, why didn't I get that name? ?
**Bam Bam:** No, I, so my, I played, so lemme just go, go into this story. Yeah. Tell the story. I played football in high school, uh, and I played multiple positions. So the coach, he couldn't pronounce my, my given name. Yeah.
So, you know, tampon, that was like the name that I was given, but then everyone truncated it to bone. Ah. So that kind of stuck and it was, you know, it's endearing and to this day I'm still called Bone.
**Gizmo:** Really love it. So we got an email from, uh, lizard Bone and I wanted to share it with you guys. He said, uh, hello Gizmo and fellow, fellow lizards.
Just a quick note to say hello and that I thoroughly enjoy your p o d, which is, he's making fun of what I say at the beginning of the episode, giving out our email. He said, I just started listening in early December after learning about you from Rob on f o h or friend Rob Ila when he posted about being your guest.
It's been fun listening to all your shows since episode one. And today I'm finally caught up. I love what you guys do and when I'm [00:57:00] not a member at, uh, not a member at my local lounge, I feel like I've joined the Lizard Lounge remotely. That's awesome. Nice. And that, lemme tell you something that is absolutely.
Like the quintessential reason why we do this. That's what it's, what it's all about is, is giving, you know, like I, I always, we always say there's a lizard sitting next to us in the empty chair here. Sure. Um, it's awesome receiving these emails. Yeah. We'd love hearing from listeners and he continued on with some recommendations and whatnot, but, you know, which is important.
We, yeah, we important, we've gotten a lot of great recommendations from listeners. You need, need as many rexs as we can. And a lot of, a lot coming up because, you know, we've, we've, we've done a lot of cigars. I mean this is what, episode 73, so we've probably put together now 75, 76 episodes. So we definitely need listener recommendations for spirits, for cigars.
Do not hesitate to email us. We love hearing from you. Um, I try to reply as quickly as I can, but that is what it's all about, guys. Oh yeah. We have the best listeners in the world and the fact. I just can't wrap my head [00:58:00] around. It's just so amazing to me that, that that lizard bone went and found our pod in December.
Uh, just like Lizard Sean, who picked up my Remington Tower. Yep. Found it. And within two or three months, listened to every single episode. Dude. I mean, that is, we have the best group of human beings listening to this podcast in the world. No doubt. It's awesome. I mean, it's amazing. It's awesome going back and doing the deep dive like that.
Yeah. So I just wanted to share my, you know, our, and my appreciation for listeners who Sure. Who share that with us because we love hearing from 'em. Oh yeah. So listeners out there, please email us. Please share what you're thinking about the pod and what you're smoking. Why don't you give 'em the email again?
P od Hello lounge lizards p od.com.
So this cigar is for the combustion for how? Well it's smoking. It's burning for me very slowly. I mean, we're about an [00:59:00] hour in and I feel like I've got quite a bit of life left on this thing. Yep, same here. Which is really nice. Agreed. Yeah. What are you guys getting on flavor right now as it's kind of stayed the same for you?
Uh, kind of the same.
**Bam Bam:** A bit more amplified. Yeah.
**Grinder:** That's exactly what I would saying. Same. Yeah, same thing.
**Senator:** The last third starts to pick up and strengthen a very nice way.
**Gizmo:** It's, yeah, it's on, it's to the fuller,
**Rooster:** like medium full now. Sure. Yeah,
**Gizmo:** sure. If it started off as a medium, still very smooth. It's a medium full.
Yeah. Delivery smooth.
**Bam Bam:** Now I could see if you smoked through this portion of the cigar quickly, it could back up on you
**Gizmo:** very quickly. Yeah, I think it would heat up real, real fast. Maybe car blast. Yeah.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. You know, going back to his email, we've talked about this before, but the communities that the podcast has created, you know, I firsthand have experienced that in town where I live.
Yeah. They listen to the podcast, we get together, we talk, they have questions, they're listening to the pod. It's, it's just a very cool thing that, that I think we created.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. And you know, [01:00:00] the, we constantly getting messages on Instagram from great people asking questions. I had a guy, I had a listener email us the other.
Having trouble setting up his tower. Mm. Having humidity problems. So I kind of walked him through that. He bought a cigar oasis. He bought the auxiliary fan kit, which I think we talked about. But, uh, I'm in love with the Cigar Oasis product, by the way. Yeah. It's awesome. It's like, it's not a, uh, this is not a plug, we're not being paid to say this, but the cigar oasis in Cuba, I was able to watch my tower and control my cigar oasis from Cuba.
It's pretty incredible. Senator, go ahead, GIZ. Senator, take your, uh, to Gizz .
**Bam Bam:** Did I miss something while we were
**Grinder:** there?
**Senator:** Gizz. Have
**Gizmo:** I not been saying this? You have, man. It's amazing. What, did you not
**Bam Bam:** have an Oasis
**Senator:** before? No, he, he w I was singing app Praises of the Oasis when he had the Remington Genesis different setup.
And he's like, right, right, right. Sure, sure, sure. My setup's great. I'm happy as I have it. And now look at him. He's like a branded basket. Oh yeah.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. He was, he was pretty
**Rooster:** dialed in back then.
**Gizmo:** He's
**Bam Bam:** dialed in now.
**Gizmo:** Always dialed in.
**Senator:** [01:01:00] Not, not like he's dialed in now though.
**Gizmo:** The, the fact that I can control, see the cigar oasis from anywhere in the world to within a
**Bam Bam:** degree of temperature?
No. And a percentage
**Gizmo:** of humidity, a 10th of a degree. See, you're outta your mind. And a 10th of a percentage. Yes. Good. There's no temperature of control. You're so dialed. Oh, is that right? So dialed in, baby . Yeah. I mean it's, you know, the other thing too, and can you imagine life without it right now? No, thank you,
But that's almost everything I come across. Everything changes my life. So I, you know, that's kind of a habit of mine. I fall in love with something. You're a passionate man. Very passionate. Oh yeah. But, um, the one thing I will say, and I'm curious if you guys have done this, but I have found that, that just creating air movement in my tower, Regulating the humidity, you know, from, let's say the middle section to the top.
Where I keep my Cubans on the bottom is a little higher where I keep my new worlds. I keep my new worlds around 65, keep my Cubans like 61 and a half to 62. Um, creating that air movement.
**Senator:** I'm sorry, 61 and a half . Yeah, you just gotta love [01:02:00] gizmo, right? You probably the only person that uses a decimal to describe what he keeps his cigars at.
**Grinder:** Gotta, are you sure it's 61 and a half and not 61.4?
**Gizmo:** Sometimes it's 61.4, sometimes a 61.5. But,
**Bam Bam:** so I have learned one thing. I haven't had my tower stocked full like you guys have as long as you have.
**Gizmo:** But I pretty, we have pretty theory. We've debunk
**Bam Bam:** no meaning. I haven't had it up as far as long as you have.
Are we still on this? No, it's just a, I want to say something. He, he's going there again. I'm going
**Gizmo:** somewhere. He's asking
for
**Senator:** it. He's asking for another accountability.
**Bam Bam:** No, I'm not. No, I'm not. Not at all, please. All right. Sorry. Please, please. Sorry. So, I've, you know, I've worried about it being so chock full of boxes, circulation, even fans wouldn't do it.
It was literally wall to wall glass to back mm-hmm. . So I took out a bunch of boxes and kind of put them, um, in the middle. Mm-hmm. and the drawers, the, the shelves have slats to allow the air to move through. So I've tried to bunch my, a few boxes in the center to allow the air to move, and I had to go back to Tudor for the boxes that I took out.[01:03:00]
It's made a world of
**Gizmo:** difference for me. So you're noticing the difference in your cigars? Oh yeah. Yeah, it was. And how long did it take after you pulled them out? To realizing like, oh, shit, that, that's actually working four days,
**Bam Bam:** really, four or five days, because I was getting very low humidity readings at the top.
I was like 58, 59. I was worried I didn't want them to get too crispy. Sure. So I took that out and with senator's advice, I ratcheted up my humidity down below up to 68, and now I'm getting 61, 62 at the top, which is for me Perfect. And in the middle I'm at 64. Perfect. Yeah,
**Gizmo:** that's great. What do you, what do you, what's your tower at?
Uh, Senator, what do you use? 62 at the
**Senator:** top? 65 at the middle, and the Oasis is maybe at 67. Okay.
**Bam Bam:** Okay. Yeah. It's a must to ratchet. It's great advice because I had it down. Mm-hmm. And I was worried, I'm thinking to myself, what do I have to do here? Because the thing
**Senator:** is, like the air, I mean, the auxiliary fans definitely help, but the air is moving in the sense that every time that kicks in, those two fans are just pushing air.
Yeah.
**Gizmo:** [01:04:00] Constantly up. It's true. But to BA's point, if there's not room in the back or front of Oh yeah. No, no.
**Senator:** There won't move. Yeah. I just mean like, if you set that at the bottom to 68, you shouldn't fear that. Oh my gosh. This whole big section of the tower is gonna be at 68. It's really not. It's just pushing that air around, which once it, it, it's spread around the tower.
It's really at like 65, you know, to 60. And
**Bam Bam:** I was worried about the fact that I may be hovering at 68 at the bottom and, and high fifties at the top. What a disaster. I would've kept it that way. I'm, I'm afraid
**Grinder:** to talk to you about my
**Bam Bam:** for Fear accountability Hour for feared. I think my attorney needs co accountability hour now.
your counselor? Yep,
**Senator:** my counselor. I think I already know. Rooster is gonna be the prosecution here. .
**Grinder:** Look at him. He's I him up right now. Ready? I'm, I'm, I'm like, I'm mostly your guys are gonna fucking
**Bam Bam:** run. Are you still spritzing your cigars? ? I'm not spritzing Your spritz. .
**Grinder:** I have, I have, uh, I have basically 67, uh, [01:05:00] probably on the top and 65 throughout the rest, and I maintain that with Wow, you're oasis on the top?
No, that's just, it's just more humid
**Gizmo:** up there. Really. And do you put, do you have Bove up there or something? I
**Grinder:** have Bovet up there and I seasoned it a long time. I seasoned it, you know, pretty regularly. Like I'll re season it every season. Really? . Yeah. Um, so
**Gizmo:** I, but you know, he may have, he may have like an imperfect seal or.
Maybe, you know, it just, it may absorb or change, you know, so Yeah. And I, that's,
**Grinder:** that's pretty common. I think I might, you know. Yeah. So I, I have to, I have to attend to it and, um, but I have these, uh, these like, I think they're called butler's. Mm-hmm. , these BDA things. Butler have, like, I have like eight of them all throughout.
It's, I have a big cabinet. I have, I have about eight of them all throughout my cabinet and on different, different levels, multiple on each level. And I can see where everything. . So if one gets outta regulation, I get an, I get alerted and I just, I just circulate it because I have enough space in it that I can
**Gizmo:** Do you, [01:06:00] have you calibrate?
**Rooster:** Did you calibrate them or do you calibrate them often? I
**Grinder:** calibrate. I calibrate it when I got 'em and they get off sometimes and you can tell because they don't, they don't, they're not all going off at the same time. So like I'll see like one on the same level as is couple degrees off, and then I'll just recalibrate it.
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Um, but you, it doesn't happen that often. You're, you'd be surprised.
**Bam Bam:** So most of us have a single Y tower. Yeah. Gizmo has a double wide, let's call it, yours is four wide, isn't it? It's pretty big double.
**Senator:** It's a big armoire. It's two doors, right? It's two doors, yeah. Is that right? But his is just a bit wider than giz.
**Gizmo:** Thanes. Yeah. I think his doors are definitely bigger than mine. Yeah. Like honestly, when I got, it's a huge unit. When I got my vault, when I saw it in the shipping crate, I was like, did they send the wrong one? I thought it would've been a little wider. Sure. Thankfully it's not. And the depth in mind and the way that it's oriented, I can fit so much in there.
Mm-hmm. in such a, a tighter space. It just works. Great. I have a question for Grindr.
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. Do you have an outlet opening in the back [01:07:00] bottom? Yeah. Is it sealed? Yep. Because that could explain why you've got lower humidity at the bottom. It's gotta be escaping. Cuz that's unusual to have humidity at the top.
Yeah, he's right. Yeah. Could be something
**Gizmo:** down there. Or he just has more bta at the top. Oh,
**Bam Bam:** that's true. That's true. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
**Grinder:** That's also true. It's also because where it positioned in my, in the room, I have a, I have a radiator, like, kind of like
**Gizmo:** ambient affects
**Bam Bam:** it. Man. You're also by the door, right?
No, I moved it. Oh, you did move it? Yeah. Yeah. Okay, okay. Yeah.
**Grinder:** Interesting. So I think that has something to do with it. So it, it's a little, it's a, it, it's a lot of work right now, . Um, but it's, it's a, it's,
**Gizmo:** it keeps me occupied here. Here's the other thing that's important to note is that the key part of this that we haven't talked about is simple preference, right?
Bam. We, we were in November talking to Juan Moya about humidity in Cuba. Oh, God. Yeah. And he's a, he, he's a Cuban ally. He's been smoking Cubans. He
**Bam Bam:** likes him
**Gizmo:** at 70% humidity. Yeah. So many Cubans do. They do. So many people do. Yeah. They like [01:08:00] higher humidity. And I, I maybe grindr's one of those folks, but to me it's, it's not just about choosing an arbitrary number.
It's about finding out how you like your cigars to smoke. Sure. What number that core that correlates to mm-hmm. and then making sure that your tower's
**Bam Bam:** delivering that. I, I absolutely prefer my Cubans to be a bit on the dryer side. Me too. Yeah.
**Senator:** Yeah. Yeah. And I, I think the thing I've encountered when I talk to people about this and they prefer a higher humidity level, it, it's usually the case that they've actually never tried cigars at a lower humidity levels.
They're like, well, this is working, these are great. I, I like mine at 70. Sure. I don't, I don't want to go any lower than that. Mm-hmm. , have you had a cigar at 62? Well, no, but so I think when you try it, I mean even like to gizmo's credit, I think my tower. was at 65 and Gizmo kept emphasizing 62 for Cubans.
For Cubans. Mm. And when I had reduced the humidity and let. process happened over weeks' time and lit one up. I was like, wow, these are good. Yeah. And even my new worlds, I mean, those would be at like 67 sometimes, and I brought [01:09:00] those down more to 65 and they smoke fantastically.
**Gizmo:** Wow. You know, and you know what's funny too?
There's a lot of misinformation out there about humidity and, uh, you know, the folks say you should store boxes at higher humidity, lower temperatures for long-term aging. And I was actually, I felt I've heard the opposite of that. And that's, that's where I'm going. I felt very validated the other day in that I was watching a YouTube video with the Saha from Davidoff of London.
I saw this video and they have one of the, can you please send that to, I have to watch that. I, they have one of the greatest collection. I mean, they, they have cigars that are, you could smoke today that are a hundred years old. Oh boy. I mean, they, David off of London, they have one of the greatest aged humidors ever.
And what they say, not even about their own humidor, what they say about. So let's say people pass away and their heirs come in and say, Hey, my grandfather, father, uncle had this amazing collection of cigars. I'd like to, you know, uh, uh, transact them to someone, to [01:10:00] you, to someone else. What they've said is that those collections that come in that were stored consistently at a lower humidity, closer to 60% RH at, you know, 65 to 70 degrees fahn, uh, temperature, those collections not only perform better, but they've been kept better.
They last aged better. Yeah. They last, which is a major misconception mm-hmm. in the industry, is that folks think that when you have a cigar to lower humidity, that they're, that they're gonna age in, in a more, you know, poorer fashion or, or possibly unravel or unravel or be ruined. Yeah. That's a nightmare.
And I mean, when I hear the Seha talk about their a hundred year old humidor, that's a good validation that, you know, I, I definitely like my stuff. a little bit lower in in the same
**Grinder:** video. I believe he was like saying A good Havana sneeze to have a little crinkle when you, when you compress it a little bit.
**Gizmo:** Yes. Yeah. Yeah. And you know, again, it comes down to preference, you know, but if you're looking to store your stuff long term, it's definitely something to think about. [01:11:00] Oh yeah. You know?
**Senator:** Yeah, man, I think that comes down to, you don't want to rush the aging process. Yes. As nice as that sounds like. Oh, well, you know, the faster it ages, the quicker it'll be ready for me to smoke and enjoy.
The downside of that is like the cigar can peak much earlier. Yeah. And so then you're trying to store something long term and it's like so much of those oils have been released at that point. It's not really re retaining that to slowly age over time. It's like wine. Like why shouldn't you keep wine in a high temperature?
Because it's gonna age very quickly that way. Right. So you want like a cool wine cellar that like keeps that aging process at like a very regulated rate so that you can hold a bottle of wine for 10 years and it's still gonna be fantastic. 10 years later. That's in a warm. that wine is gonna age so quickly after a few years, it's gonna taste like shit because it's just aged so fast that that's it.
At that point, it doesn't have the same structure to age at the rate that it really should
**Rooster:** be. Yeah. What's the ideal temp? Like
**Gizmo:** 58 60 or, there's
**Senator:** honestly [01:12:00] like a huge debate about that. I don't even know that there's like a perfectly accepted thing, but you definitely don't want to go it. It's gotta be sixties or lower for sure.
Right?
**Gizmo:** For wine. Yeah. Yeah. And you know, the other side of the coin that I've seen a lot of folks doing, especially in the F O H forum, is when they find a box of cigars. Let's say they buy an aged box of cigars and they're very happy with how they're smoking today. Like we've talked about that. Let's, let's put aside cigars that are previewing, well, young cigars that are at their perfect moment.
I've seen guys that are vacuum sealing those boxes to prevent further aging. Like to lock in. Interesting. The situation. Now, I haven't done that. I don't know what the results of that are, but it, I mean, I'm not a scientist, but it makes sense to me logically, like trapping the cigars. So there's no other air transfer or movement.
Mm-hmm. .
**Rooster:** Yeah. But that's, I mean, I wanna, I wanna reach into that box and have a cigar once in a while, so, so I'm gonna have to vacuum seal every time. Yeah. So if you have like multiple boxes of the [01:13:00] same year, maybe I can
**Gizmo:** understand them doing that.
**Bam Bam:** And if you, you make a separate effort to age cigars and never touch them, you'll need a separate vessel to keep them in.
Yeah.
**Gizmo:** And never go near them. But the thing that rings my bell with that is, you know, we had those Parus Luciens that were from 1991. Yeah. And they were dead. I didn't have mine
**Bam Bam:** yet. They were dead. Dude, that's disappointing.
**Senator:** It means so dead. I feel so bad. Obviously gives source gizmo put his down after what?
Like a quarter of these serious. I. Didn't even smoke it. Wow.
**Gizmo:** Yeah. It was a, I, you know, I'm so glad we talked about doing that on the pod, and I'm glad we didn't because that would, it was an absolute dud. I mean, and, you know, maybe they weren't kept well or whatever, but, you know, it was terribly unfortunate.
That's
**Rooster:** odd because there, we know the source that it
**Gizmo:** came from. Yeah. Um, it's unfortunate. So boys we're coming in the last third here of the Don Papen Garcia Blue Label in Landro. And I have really enjoyed this cigar so [01:14:00] far. Very good. And it's e even in the last third here, which we talk about, a lot of new worlds they do not deliver in that second third, especially in the last third.
This is really, it's improved. It's awesome. Yeah. I'm very, very happy with this $9 cigar. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. And how's the, uh, the basal Hayden's working for you guys? That's getting better.
**Senator:** Uh, it hasn't gotten better for me. , I guess. I mean, I taste the flavor of the ice more than I do the bourbon. Yeah. It's, uh,
**Gizmo:** flavor of the ice.
It just, it doesn't,
**Senator:** honestly doesn't
**Gizmo:** hold up. I mean, I say, is that a, is that a good flavor note, ?
**Senator:** No, I mean, I say that because this cigar picks up in strength in the last third. Yeah. So that's where you actually want the spirit to have the body to hold up. And at this point it's like so imbalanced. Yeah.
It's like the cigar feels like it's up here and the bourbon is just like, yeah. Fighting for dear life to stay with us.
**Bam Bam:** For me, early on it was, was a pry punch, and I don't want any spirit that has that flavor profile. It makes my stomach turn. Mm-hmm. It's like cough syrup for me. But the ice, and it's kind of dissipated.
It's been [01:15:00] breathing. It's, it's okay. It's like
**Gizmo:** the hoppy
**Rooster:** non-alcoholic beer is actually bearing very nicely.
**Gizmo:** I bet it is. Yeah. I'm
**Bam Bam:** enjoying mine too. Can you pass it down please? .
**Gizmo:** Grindr, what do you think about the cigar and the pair?
**Grinder:** Uh, cigars great. Um, it's definitely picked up in strength and I like it.
And, you know, for the pairing, I agree with Senator. It's the wis pickiness of it now does not pair well with how it's picking up in the cigars, picking up in strength. So I, I'm not drinking it. . Yeah. .
**Gizmo:** So going back to the, the fan thing for a second, the air movement. Um, I, I'm finding that my, my tower, the cigars that I'm kind of, let's call it dry boxing or, or preparing the smoke that I keep at the top Yep.
The singles. Yeah. Yeah. And so I have a tray of singles at the top and a couple boxes. Mm-hmm. , like I have a Mag 46 box up there that I'm smoking out of. I have a D four box that, cuz I smoke out of them a lot. Ah. So I want them to be ready to go. And I'm finding that, you know, I have fans, the auxiliary kit from Oasis that ties in, it [01:16:00] runs 24 7, 2 little fans affixed to the side of the, uh, the, the vault.
And I'm finding with that air movement, it really keeps it precisely where I want it. Yeah. Not just when the unit kicks on to provide more humidity. So I think that the, the, the concept of just constant air movement, even if it's very little, is really, really helpful.
**Bam Bam:** You know, the one thing I'm just for storage, I'm considering doing what?
The tower power. There's a, a hole at the top.
**Senator:** I, I have no idea what
**Bam Bam:** the hell that's for. Yeah. I'm gonna take a piece of cedar, seal it and just seal that up because I feel like humidity gets up there. I'm just paranoid. Even if you just
**Gizmo:** get some I'm covering up there. Get some food grade useless. Get some food grade, uh, what's the word I want?
Not glue, but uh, it's gonna be silicon, silicone. Yeah. Food. Get some food grade silicone. Yeah. And seal it like that. That will No, this is the problem
**Senator:** is the, It's huge. What
**Gizmo:** this big, it's like senator Diameter for the listener senator's holding up. Yeah, it's like a personal pizza. Wow. Yeah. Seriously. It's ridiculous.
And that's just the whole unit is just airing at
**Bam Bam:** the [01:17:00] top, and I think a lot of our humidity escapes up into that chamber and just dissipates. Wow. I, I'm guessing, I don't know.
**Gizmo:** I did not know. The hole goes all the
**Rooster:** way through the unit up on the, just on the top.
**Senator:** So basically like, here's the top of the unit and if you were to look inside mm-hmm.
there's like this circular hole. Yeah. And then the humidity would rise above that and finally hit the top. I think it's
**Gizmo:** trapped
**Senator:** in there or something. Yeah. Dude, I just don't know why they put it. Like when I saw that I was looking around like, is there some kind of light fixture that's, it looks honestly like a circular light is supposed to go in there.
But I, I looked online. There's no part to buy for. I have no clue why
**Gizmo:** that's there. I haven't, that's very odd. I
**Bam Bam:** haven't gotten to it, but I'm
**Gizmo:** gonna seal that fucker. And I'm wondering when you do how that affects, I bet it'll improve. Yeah,
**Senator:** because the thing
**Gizmo:** is
**Bam Bam:** like at the top, and I could probably, sorry, take my humidity down on my Yeah, a hundred
**Grinder:** percent.
Because
**Senator:** this is bet the thing like the humidity at the top is naturally lower. That happens with just about everything. But because they've created, it's like if that were [01:18:00] sealed, the amount of space between your cigars and the top tray and the actual top of it would be so minimal that the humidity would be holding right by the cigars.
It would sit there. Now that it gets to go up there, it's, it's reducing the humidity. Yeah, that's actually right by the cigars. Cuz it's probably collecting up at the top, right? I don't get it exactly
**Gizmo:** right. Can you stick your hand in that? Like, can you feel like it so it goes like deep. I could put anything I want up there.
Can I say too, and this is, this is not scientific, but to me, where my brain would go if I'm you guys is like, is there moisture getting trapped up there that's gonna prevent like Yeah. Create a potential like. Mold or some sort of moisture problem? That's the question. Not
**Senator:** much, just because it's so much less up there.
Like that's the thing, the humidity reading is lower. It's not like super humid up there. Yeah, and that chambers, I just want to keep that humidity closer to the actual sticks. So a hundred
**Gizmo:** percent agree. So let's, let's call it the chamber. Is it two inches? Two inches? Yeah. Okay. Yeah, it's shallow. So there's a two inch gap at the top that has a, let's say like a, almost like for, it's a white fixture.
It's about six inch in
**Bam Bam:** inches in diameter. It's very odd. It's just a hollow chamber. [01:19:00]
**Gizmo:** There must be a reason why they have, do you think they repurposed that tower for like wine storage or something for
**Bam Bam:** a light? See, here's what I think, you know, we've got our high built in highter, which is useless. Yeah, I think the hydrometers up in that chamber.
Oh, so they want that humidity to get access to that? I, I don't know.
**Gizmo:** Could be. Oh
**Senator:** yeah, yeah, yeah. Actually that's,
**Gizmo:** that would
**Senator:** explain it. That's
**Bam Bam:** probably what, but that hydrometer is absolutely use. Yes, it's an analog one. It's, it's useless. It looks nice, but yeah. Doesn't do anything.
**Grinder:** How, how, how off is the analog versus reality?
It's huge. The
**Gizmo:** way off . Well this is Bas towers at 90 . .
**Senator:** I mean, no, no. This is the thing you could calibrate. I'm gonna run
**Gizmo:** home
**Grinder:** right now. , that's not, that's not the first time. Bam. Said it's huge. It's .
**Bam Bam:** Well,
**Senator:** you could calibrate it and it would work perfectly. I just didn't bother because I'm never gonna trust an analog over a digital hydrometer.
Uh, but the funny thing is, given that I have not calibrated it, it's actually only maybe 4% off. Really? So it's not far. Yeah. If I calibrated it, it would be accurate, [01:20:00] but Yeah.
**Gizmo:** I gotta look so it pops out. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, calibration's very important for your hydrometers. Sure is. Yeah. I swear by, you know, people, sometimes folks I see calibrate their, their hydrometers with either a 68 or a 72 bda, and the problem with that is that ambient room humidity in a normal home is, it's not far enough away to really do a true calibration.
Mm-hmm. , so I swear by that bau. Uh, uh, calibration kit with the 75, just to really push it a little further so that you make the hygrometer work Yep. Calibrate to that, and then throw it in
**Bam Bam:** your towel. Right. Get it to 75. And they're all the same.
**Gizmo:** Exactly. And you know, you're good. Yeah. Don't calibrate the 65 or 68 mm-hmm.
because you're just not making the hygrometer. It's Good point. Work hard enough. Good point. That you're, you, I, I wouldn't call that an AC active, it's a point. Calibration. Yeah. Yeah. Have you, have you noticed, like recently
**Rooster:** there was a change with the BDA calibration, like the app, the name has changed
**Gizmo:** to CI Cigar International.
Cigars International bought bau. [01:21:00] Wow. Yeah. When did this happen? Yeah, in the last month? Yeah. Month or two or two ago. Wow. And I think I honestly, you know, I think it's just data mining. I they only bought that app. They only bought that specific thing. They didn't buy BDA itself right out the packs. Just the, uh, just that app.
I think it's a data mining thing. They're trying to get the cigar user data Wow. Out of it. Probably just to push them emails to sell cigars. Interesting. That's my bet. Wow. But yeah, I, I did notice that I don't have that app, but um, I do because of the, because of the butler's. Yeah. . So that's a cigar international product now.
Yeah. You know,
**Grinder:** that's how I found out. ,
**Gizmo:** all of a sudden CI's emailing you deals for, uh, factory seconds. Yeah. Grinder.
**Senator:** We know you need more AVO domains. . . Running low, running
**Grinder:** low. Google knows Atlantic is
**Bam Bam:** my preference. Shit. . I love Atlantic. [01:22:00]
**Gizmo:** Atlantic's the best. They're great.
**Rooster:** It's only two women that listen to
**Gizmo:** us, right?
Mm-hmm. , Alexa and Siri .
**Bam Bam:** I did tell you Siri, my, you know, secret girlfriend? Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Bam. Uses Siri a lot and it's always wrong and always wrong. It's always hilarious. Ah, endless comedy. That's
**Bam Bam:** great. .
**Gizmo:** All right boys. So are you ready to do the formal liquor rating on the Basil Hayden's? Sure. Kentucky Bourbon six.
All right. Bam. Bam. You're up. You're at a turn. . .
**Bam Bam:** Yeah. I am hovering between a six and a seven. Yeah. I'm not a fan of this. I have to go six.
**Gizmo:** Okay. Grindr,
**Grinder:** I'm a six as well. It's, you know, it's uninspiring. It's, it is nice that it's not too harsh, you know, and it's, it's, it's, it's approachable and you can get it anywhere.
Yeah. So it's a six. Okay.
**Gizmo:** Senator.
**Senator:** I'm in lockstep with these guys. It's a six. I mean, it's drinkable, but there's nothing that excites you about it.
**Gizmo:** Yeah, I'm right there with you guys. Didn't need the [01:23:00] calculator six. There you go. Since the first step. Yep. First sip, excuse me. And first step, uh, it's a 6.0 for sure.
Uh, the formal liquor rating on the Basil Hayden. Um, I, you know, I think it's uh, uh, I think it's a mediocre bourbon. I think for the price, it's fine. If it were 40, 50, $60, I think that would change things a little bit. But for 30 bucks, the six point ohs, they have
**Bam Bam:** another one that they make. It's got a dark purple label.
Yep. It's even worse. Really? It's like true cough
**Gizmo:** syrup. Wow. Oh. . Hmm. All right. Any final thoughts on the, uh, Don Papin Garcia as we come to the end here? The blue label Ander still outstanding? Yeah. I thought it was very, very good. About an inch and a half away. Yeah. I'm, uh, about a, uh, inch on an inch. Mm-hmm.
Yeah. A little, a little delicious. Delicious. Yeah. All right. Rooster, you do ready to do the, uh, formal lizard rating on this thing? Yeah, I mean, I, I
**Rooster:** enjoyed it thoroughly. I mean, um, started off like a nice medium and [01:24:00] I think it ended at little bit on the fuller
**Gizmo:** side. So,
**Rooster:** I mean, I'm in between eight and nine, but I think it's a nine because for that price point, if you can get that much flavor out of a cigar, and we love the size and I love the pigtail.
It's Alen. Sarah, one of our favorite Beas.
**Gizmo:** Um, it's a nine. Oh yeah, nine for me too, right with you. Everything you just said, I'm totally with you. This is, this has been another new world revelation for me. Mm-hmm. nine all day Senator. , I'm
**Senator:** in the exact same camp. Uh, it's a definite nine. A very strong nine, I think really across the board.
It looks beautiful. The presentation's great. The construction is flawless. I honestly think this is one of the best constructed land arrows I've ever seen. Agreed. Um, and the flavor delivers all the way through. I think, uh, like Rooster said, you know, it starts medium, it ends, uh, medium full. So some might even say full.
Mm-hmm. . Um, so I think there's something in this cigar really for, for everybody. Yeah.
**Gizmo:** Grinder.
**Grinder:** I don't need to [01:25:00] pile on. It's a nine for me. Uh, for all the same reasons. Awesome.
**Bam Bam:** And bam, bam. So I'm also at a nine. Ooh. I mean, it's from the point of view of construction, the, my father, number four, the construction was also impeccable performance.
Great combustion as well. This just had a, a better kick in flavor. And if you go back and look at the rating that we rated, that we rated that guy in 8.3, one of the one of us here rated it at six.
**Gizmo:** Well, I think,
**Rooster:** uh, Puba gave it a six. Yes, he did. Grinder gave it an eight.
**Bam Bam:** No, they were all nines except for Puba.
No. Grinder gave no Grinder was eight. Oh, is that right? Okay. Yeah. So this, it's a great, it's a fair score. It's
**Gizmo:** very accurate. Yeah. Actually I'm looking at the scores. Puba was a six, grinder was a seven. The re the other five of us, ah, were nines. It was a full house. The other five of us were nine. So that's how we ended up in
**Bam Bam:** 80.8 0.3.
And this is at a nine now.
**Gizmo:** This is a 9.0. Very
**Senator:** accurate. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I want, I think Bam asked this question early on, which we preferred now all the way through this. Uh, for me, I definitely prefer this. Totally hundred percent and [01:26:00] honestly had. at the time we did the, my Father Lanzaro. I had never had one of these yet.
Yeah. Had I had this, I would've given that an eight and this a nine. But as always, the composite score works out. Cuz that you said was what? An 8.3? 8.3. It's
**Gizmo:** uncanny. Uncanny how it works out. Yeah, it works out every time. Yeah. It's totally accurate. , I mean yeah. Wizard math
**Bam Bam:** never lies . .
**Gizmo:** Sometimes it does
Yeah. Yeah. So I'm, I'm, yeah, I mean, I'm looking at some of the others. I mean this is definitely performed the Maestro del Tiempo, which is Lonsdale. Yeah. Which is another cigar we loved was also a 9.0. Mm-hmm. , uh, and the La Paul Goli, uh, Lato number two, which we did on a recent episode was a 6.8. And as we mentioned, the, uh, my father number four, Lance.
was an 8.3. Now the Ashton Vsg Lawnsdale, which Oh yeah. Which is not Lonsdale. That's a cigar. We, we all went and bought that, bought boxes off. That was high. That was an 8.8. Yeah. So this did edge that out and I think rightfully
**Senator:** Absolutely. Yeah. I [01:27:00] mean, the thing that this definitely edges that out on is construction.
Mm-hmm. , one thing I will say with the Ashton Vsg, I love the flavor of that cigar, but sometimes if you look at them, it's, some of them don't look very pretty.
**Bam Bam:** It's toothy. Yeah. It's got a very toothy
**Gizmo:** wrapper. Yeah. This, this, the wrapper on this is beautiful. It impeccable milk c. And thank, thank
**Bam Bam:** you Rooster for introducing
**Gizmo:** us to the Yeah, this was a great final.
I kind of just stumbled upon the, my father and this
**Bam Bam:** one. Well, don't say that you're a master. Procurer,
**Senator:** to procure. We're waiting for a ba, procure me a box. .
**Gizmo:** So the other cigar that we did, uh, from my father Don Pepin, we did it on episode 23, was a cigar we did not love, which was my father, the judge. Oof. Uh, which came in at a 5.6.
That was not a great cigar. Now I
**Bam Bam:** put that in the garden. Yeah. . Yeah. Great
**Gizmo:** fertilizer. But, uh, yeah, so this is right up there with the Maestro Delpo as far as our long shorties, Longsdale and Lan zeros at a 9.0. So I think that's a perfect score for this. Yes. So, all [01:28:00] right boys. Great conversation. Great being with you.
Tonight we had a 6.0 on the Basal Hayden, uh, their regular issue, Kentucky Bourbon, and we had a 9.0 on the Don Papin Garcia. Label in Lance er Strong recommend. Yes, strong Recommend for nine bucks, 9.09 bucks. Run out and buy it. It's a must to have in your collection. Agree.
**Rooster:** I'm very curious what PBO
**Gizmo:** would rate this.
That's a good question. I think you would like it, but let's have him smoke. I think it would be
**Senator:** higher than than number four. Dead
**Gizmo:** than my father. I agree. Sure. I agree. All right, boys. Great night. We'll see you Allall next week.
Hope you enjoyed this episode. Thanks for joining us. You could find our merch store and ratings archive at our brand new website, lounge lizards pod.com. That's Lounge lizards P O d.com. Don't forget to leave us a rating and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform. If you have any comments, questions, if you wanna reach out, say hello.
Tell us what you're smoking, email us. Hello [01:29:00] at lounge lizards pod dot. You can also find us on Instagram at Lounge Lizards Pod. We really appreciate your time and we'll, uh, we'll see you next week.